APPENDIX— ZOOLOGY. 



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The Cobra Verde, or Green Serpent, is of little leiigtli, and very small. 



The Papapintos is a large gray suake, said to be harmless. It is seldom met with but upon the 

 margins or in the vicinity of lakes, where it catches toads and rats. 



There is another species of serpent, called by the Brazilians Campo-limpa, (F«eW Cleaner,) incon- 

 sequence of its cleaning the fields of the smaller snakes. It is light coloured, with a yellowish cast, 

 ornamented with a variety of spots, and is about six feet long. Almost all these species of snakes are 

 said to be viviparous. 



The Padre Manoel Ayres de Cazal says, that in the parish of Muritiba, near Cachoeira, in the pro- 

 vince of Bahia, a serpent was shown to him, killed within an hour, as a curiosity, in consequence of 

 being wholly unknown to the people. It was scarcely a foot in length, but thick and round, and 

 smooth as an eel, to which its head assimilated. The tail was short and pointed in a pyramidical 

 form. It had four feet extremely small, without any appearance of legs. 



In the Brazil there are various species of Spiders, which furnish excellent silk. 



The Caranquejeira, so denominated in consequence of being of the size of a moderate sized 

 caranguejo, or crab-fish, is covered with long hair, and is venomous. 



The CiGAERA, or Cricket, has more of the species of beetle than the locust. 



The species of Butterflies are here very numerous, as I have before observed. A collection of 

 sixteen hundred different sorts has already been made in the Brazil, and unquestionably there are an 

 infinite number yet for collection to occupy the industry of the naturalist. The most beautiful are 

 found in the vicinity of the tropic and the temperate zone. 



There are also a great variety of flies and phosphoric insects, which illuminate the hedges at night 

 by the brilliant lights they emit. 



There are also a great diversity of Ants. The most remarkable are those of Mandioca, of Correifao, 

 and the Cupim. The first are of a reddish colour, and a pest to agricultural productions, as well as 

 fruit trees, such as the orange, and others equal in size or larger. It is necessary every day, in order 

 to preserve the mandioca from the destructive attacks of this insect, to lay something for them to eat, 

 in order that they may not devour the plantations at night or strip the trees of their foliage. It is 

 during the night alone that they commit these depredations. They form spacious subterraneous 

 cavities, with many entrances and outlets, distant one from the other. When it happens that they 

 form this cavity below the foundation-wall of a house sometimes it sinks, and, during the rainy sea- 

 son, most probably falls to the ground. The Correi^ao* Ant is small, and moves from one district to 

 another in innumerable legions, covering many roods of territory in their march. No living insect can 

 remain upon their line of march : the smaller ones are killed, and the larger obliged to fly. The 

 Cupim is a small Ant, light coloured, and flat, subsisting upon the flour or small particles of wood, 

 with which, and a species of glue that issues from its body, it constructs an arch or vault over the 

 road by which it travels, in order that it may not be seen by other insects and birds which destroy it. 

 It is very destructive to the timbers of dwelling-houses, and builds its residence in the ceilings of the 

 bame materials, in a round form full of little cells ; sometimes it constructs it upon the points of 

 branches of trees, but the greater number of Cupims erect them upon the ground, with earth, ren- 

 dered solid by the admixture of the said glue, the whole of the interior being full of cells, saloons, 

 and covered ways : their form is pyramidical, some with many feet iaiieight, and they resist for several 



» Corrcifao is a term applied to a judge going out to uave! tlirovigli the district of his jurisdiction, 



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